If you’re a teacher on social media who happens to follow English-teaching colleagues, you may have noticed that something is going on with next year’s GCSE English exams.
But what exactly is happening - and why are English teachers so frustrated by it?
GCSE English 2021: What’s happening?
The problems started back in July, when Ofqual launched its consultation on the 2021 exam series. It was quite clear at this point that this was too late for our return to teaching in September, but reassuring statements were made.
Then on 3 August the Ofqual guidance was released. Given that this year’s Year 11 had spent a large chunk of last year learning remotely, schools would now be allowed to drop one of the four specified set texts, with the exception of Shakespeare - leaving a choice between poetry, a 19th-century novel and fiction/drama from the British Isles from 1914.
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Many teachers pointed out that schools that only had Shakespeare left to cover (like mine) were disadvantaged by this, compared with schools that had already covered this compulsory element.
However, many seemed to miss an important footnote: the boards could add further compulsory material. Ofqual was passing the buck to the boards. It was theoretically possible (although unlikely) for a board to keep all the texts.
So, what would the boards choose to do?
There was a lot of discussion online among AQA teachers (the vast majority of English teachers) about what to drop. Poetry was a popular choice due to the number of poems covered. Although some pointed out that there could potentially be problems with not all boards using the “unseen comparison” with poetry, and consequently different exam boards giving more weight to the poetry element.
Teachers asked what the new specification would look like. They were told by AQA that the proposed changes were with Ofqual and would likely be shared in mid-September.
This is where the problem really starts: schools would already have started teaching before they found out what they would be expected to teach. Many departments simply made a decision to enable planning and to help students move on. Others waited.
Then on 3 September Edexcel announced that it was making the post-1914 text compulsory alongside Shakespeare, and that poetry (including the unseen analysis) would be optional. At this stage, given that a main part of Ofqual’s role is to ensure parity between boards, some assumed that AQA must surely follow suit. Otherwise, you would be comparing students who hadn’t done unseen analysis with those who had.
At my school we decided not to choose until after mocks. Still we waited.
But, at the end of last week (10 September), AQA dropped the bombshell: poetry and unseen poetry would both be compulsory.
This has left many English departments with an issue. Some now have two texts still to teach; some have one; some lucky schools will have no more texts left to teach and can go straight to revision.
In summer 2021 once all English literature exams have been sat, can we really expect the Joint Council for Qualifications to be able to compare the performance of our students who have sat different exam boards? I don’t feel that you can really compare students fairly within the AQA choice, let alone alongside the Edexcel ones.
AQA English: what will the 2021 GCSE specification look like?
AQA is currently the most popular English specification by a significant margin, but a quick glance on Twitter and Facebook will tell you that many English departments are now seriously considering switching to Edexcel for literature in 2021. English literature is a compulsory subject, so the financial implications of this decision for AQA could be significant.
It is perhaps not surprising then that AQA quickly sent out a letter to teachers suggesting that it would review the situation.
On Tuesday 15th of September, AQA delivered its (hopefully final) update that the poetry anthology is now able to dropped as an optional text, but unseen poetry will be compulsory.
So where does all this leave us?
The impact on staff and student wellbeing has already been dreadful and the last-minute decision to review has only caused further stress and worry.
It is, quite frankly, unacceptable that these decisions are being made after the term has already started. How on Earth did Ofqual allow this to happen? Why did the consultation for changes not start until July? Why have the boards approved specifications that are so different from each other? Why was this allowed to drag over the entire summer and beyond?
This was never going to end well. And now English teachers are angry.
Heidi Drake is deputy head of English at Colchester Royal Grammar School. She tweets @mrsd_english
